Lives lost in the north now remembered

Brian Winspear could have had his name on a silver plaque 12 times, but he escaped death. The 92-year-old bombing of Darwin veteran today opened a new WWII memorial wall at East Point, where his comrades are remembered for their service. Click play to hear Brian's story.

The memorial wall stretches along a 60 metre path around the original 9 inch gun emplacement on Darwin's coast, and bears the names of 1672 people who died in northern Australia during WWII.

Divided into sections for the Royal Australian Navy, the Australian Army, the Australian Air Force, the US navy and army as well as civilians, the wall is the first place all WWII casualties from the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia can be remembered.

"I was nearly on the wall 12 times - I nearly died twelve times," Brian Winspear AM said.

When Japan first bombed Darwin, Brian had just arrived in town after leaving West Timor the day before.

"We'd just got back and had breakfast then the first wave of dive bombers and zeroes came in," he said. "You could see the Japanese pilots smiling as they went over."

"Looking up I could see 27 bombers arriving. As I was watching, the sun reflected off all the bombs and it was just like confetti coming down.

"I popped into a trench and got a bomb split went into my hand and one in my eye. That was one of the 12 times I might have been on the wall."

Mr Winspear wants to find the names of his friends who died in the war alongside him in service.

"There's a flight lieutenant who was pilot of the aircraft I should have been on and it crashed - I wanted to see him," he said.

"Also I was best man to a boy called Raynor, and about three weeks after the wedding he left and didn't come back, so I wanted to see his name here because he left a new wife behind.

"It was pretty rugged times."

He said so many of his comrades were killed that the uniforms they left behind formed a two-metres-high pile in his quarters.

"It got to the stage where if the crew didn't come back, we'd give them two days then we'd put all their shirts and shorts in a pile in the spare bedrooms," Brian said.

"We didn't have to do any laundry because when we needed new shorts we'd just go to the pile. That was what it was like - life was cheap and if you went out and didn't come back, so be it."

Brian Winspear will be at the Darwin Cenotaph for the Bombing of Darwin 71st commemoration tomorrow morning.